I Thought I Was Done, But Then. . . .

First, I have to say, I am thrilled to have come this far on this crazy journey. This quilt has been the toughest one I've made so far, mainly because I wasn't following a pattern. And at the same time, I found it easier to sustain an interest in this project, because I had no idea what I would do next with it. 

It's hard to believe that I started with this,

and it turned out to be this. All because dd said, "Those look like leaves. Can you make me a tree quilt instead? I want it to be dark and haunting."

Now that I have the background behind the trees done, and it does resemble a sunset in the distance, a little, I realize that it is no longer dark and haunting. As I was adding the bargello strips in between the tree trunks, I decided I would next applique a silhouette of a tree line of naked branches to break up some of that brightness starting from the top of the black and extending up to the beginning of the blue line. And to balance out the design, the last step will be adding some dried up, wintry forest ground cover to the bottom to create a foreground.